NejiHina Modern AU Drabble Set
by ruikumo
Summary: A set of NejiHina drabbles in modern AU settings. The contexts are not necessarily consistent from one drabble to the next. These are NejiXHinata romantic scenes. If that's not your cup of tea, read something else, thanks!
1. Chapter 1

Notes: I've been wanting to write a NejiHina story with a modern AU setting for awhile, but I get scenes in my head that don't necessarily connect. So here's a drabble set! Hope you'll enjoy.

**Two Sides**

Hinata was crossing the campus quad after a lecture when she caught sight of a familiar figure seated on a bench. She paused a moment, just to look at him, unnoticed.

She liked to see him here, at the university. He was so much more relaxed here than in the family home. One arm was resting casually on the back of the bench, while the other flipped the pages of the book resting on his lap. She watched the movements of his long fingers and felt an odd quiver inside. She loved his hands: strong, elegant, and graceful. With half a sigh, she resumed her walk towards him.

"Neji-nii-san," she said softly. Why did she have to be nervous? It was ridiculous.

He looked up with the slight smile that was always her favorite welcome. "Hinata."

She smiled back, thought about asking for permission to sit, thought better of it, and simply sat down to his right on the bench. He nodded and turned back to his book. She opened her folklore text and took a few notes, then relaxed into people watching. Couples walked hand-in-hand, sat together in the grass eating lunch, joked and laughed on other benches. She stifled a sigh.

Neji shut his book and turned to her with his slight smile. Everything he did was graceful and purposeful - the modest inclination of his head, the direct movement of his eyes - there was perfect economy in his motions. "Hungry? Want to have lunch?"

That was the question she had been hoping for. Hinata smiled brightly and nodded in reply.

As they walked to the cafeteria, she fought the urge to grab his sleeve. Instead she gripped her books with both hands and tried to think of something witty to say. She loved it when he laughed: his eyes would crinkle at the corners and there would be a flash of white, even teeth. It happened so seldom that she tried to store up a collection of funny anecdotes just for the time they spent together.

She told him about how Hanabi had tied her hair in twin tails and put on lip gloss to go to a goukon after school the day before and was in such a hurry to get home before her curfew that she didn't remember to take her hair down on the train. Hinata described the scolding Hanabi got from Hiashi, and the face that Hanabi made behind his back. Neji's lips quirked wryly. Hinata told him how her sister came to her room later to complain, and how she drew a face on Hanabi's palm to remind her to take her hair down. She drew the face on a page of her notebook to show Neji - a face with two pigtails and a tongue sticking out - and was rewarded by an eye-crinkling chuckle from her older cousin. Gratified, she smiled up at him and took a mental picture of his face.

* * *

Neji walked onto the quad and eyed benches with deliberation. One in the sun, not the shade. One between the lecture hall from which Hinata would be leaving and the cafeteria, but on the west side, not the east side. He remembered with chagrin the time that he had been seated on the wrong side of the line of trees down the middle of the quad, and Hinata had walked right behind him. He had looked up from his book to see her back some ten meters ahead of him and had some pains to catch up casually.

He picked his bench and glanced at his watch. Ten minutes. Perfect. He relaxed and flipped to a case study in his textbook. Business Communications was a bore to Neji, but Uncle Hiashi insisted that technical knowledge alone was insufficient for an executive of the Hyuuga group, and an executive position was one of his ultimate goals.

Neji managed to absorb himself in the case study so that he had the appropriate air of non-expectation as Hinata's footsteps approached and her soft voice said his name. He looked up and smiled.

He was glad when she sat down so naturally. Sometimes he would imagine Hinata initiating an invitation to lunch, but that never happened. He tried not to indulge in the daydream of Hinata bringing a homemade lunch box for them to share.

As she opened her own book, his fingers felt twitchy. He ran a crisp page between his thumb and forefinger and turned it blindly. He listened to chattering voices around the quad and wished that he could think of something interesting to say. When Hinata laughed, her nose crinkled adorably and a dimple appeared in her right cheek. He warmed to the mind's eye image and turned another page abstractedly. His text was not bringing any topic of conversation to mind, however, so he shut the book. Maybe movement would help his stultified brain. "Hungry? Want to have lunch?"

She smiled and nodded. She was so _agreeable_; she hardly ever turned down an invitation. He was glad that she was attending his university and hardly any of her old high school classmates were here. Neji was always wary of that Inuzuka kid-he was always asking Hinata to join him in activities that were suspiciously like dates, though Hinata insisted that they were just friends. In university, that kind of naiveté was just dangerous.

As they stood and walked to the cafeteria, Neji slung his books under his left arm, so that the right one, on Hinata's side, was free. Of course she would never take his arm, but still. It was courteous. He thought of Hinata linking arms with her friend Yamanaka or Hanabi and suppressed a sigh.

Their thoughts seemed to be converging. Hinata started telling him a story about Hanabi and he smiled wryly. The girl was such a brat. Hinata showed him the face that she drew on Hanabi's hand and he laughed outright. Hinata's sense of humor was always surprising him. She was so gentle and sweet that the effect of her poking fun at anyone delivered an unexpected punch. "I want that drawing," he said. "Will you let me have it?" At her surprised look, he added, "she's always trying to get one over on me. I can use it for my counter offensive."

Hinata smiled and tore the page out of her notebook to hand to him. "Don't be too hard on her."

"No, no. For self-defense only," he replied, slipping the page into his textbook. He held the door to the cafeteria open for her and watched her dark hair flow ahead of him. Neji had a photo sleeve in his wallet: one side was for a photo of his father, mother, and himself as a baby; the other side, he and Hinata together on her third birthday. There was just space in between the two to tuck Hinata's drawing.


	2. Chapter 2

**Argument**

Notes: For this drabble and the next, Meeting, I changed the Hyuuga family relationships somewhat to suit a modern AU context. Some of the changes should appear through the text, but the most important one is that Hizashi is the older brother in this universe.

* * *

Neji was six the first time he heard his parents argue.

He had been tucked into bed and sleeping for a few hours when the sound of harsh voices in the next room roused him.

"You're mad," his mother was saying. "Absolutely mad. You're just going to turn up with a six-year-old son that they know nothing about? You think that they'll be so happy at the appearance of a sudden heir that they'll just overlook the fact that he's illegitimate? You just buried your wife! You'll be lucky if your father doesn't disown you on the spot!"

Alarmed, confused, Neji sat up in his futon and rubbed his eyes.

"Moemi, Neji is still my son. He is entitled to his birthright." His father's voice is strained. "Hiashi will support me. He understood how it was with Ume."

His mother scoffed.

"He - he knows that there was someone else."

There is a rasping cry. "You're going to take my son away to a place where people will say awful things about him. Don't you know what they'll call him? Where is your head, Hizashi?"

"You're my family, Moemi. You and Neji. I don't want to take him away from you. I want to marry you. I want you to be my wife."

"You're absolutely mad."

"Moemi -"

"No, no!" There was a sound of a door opening and closing.

A low groan came from the living room. Neji trembled in fear and incomprehension. "Tou-chan," he whimpered. "Tou-chan!"

Rapid footsteps crossed the adjacent room. An instant later the door to the bedroom slid open. "Neji!" His father's face was creased with anxiety as he looked down at the small figure kneeling in bed. He bent and embraced the boy. "It's all right, Neji. Everything is going to be all right."

Neji clung to his father. The panic began to subside. He allowed himself to be laid back in bed and soothed. His father laid down next to him and kept his hand on the boy's small back.

In the morning when he woke, Neji found his mother and father lying on either side of him in the futon. He could almost believe that the alarm of the previous night had been nothing but a bad dream.

But in later years, Neji could look back at that evening and recognize it as the beginning of the end. The innocent, happy family life he had known began to fracture from that moment. In a few years, his life would be entirely unrecognizable.


	3. Chapter 3

**Meeting**

Neji sat on a polished wooden chair in a long corridor and tried not to shiver. The chair was too tall and his legs dangled, but he willed himself not to swing them. He clenched his hands together.

The hallway was too long and tall. Everything about this house was too big, too dark, too stern. He had never been in a place like this before. Everything was dark polished wood, dark polished marble. The corridors stretched on and turned and connected like a labyrinth. Neji had spent the extent of his young life residing in a one-bedroom apartment. All the places that he knew from his neighborhood - the corner grocery, the neighborhood park, his kindergarten - were small, bright, a little shabby perhaps, but friendly and warm. In this house, nothing was shabby or small.

Not even he, himself. Small enough, perhaps, but not shabby, dressed in new, unfamiliar clothes, a miniature of the suits his father wore to work everyday. Every evening, his father would change out of his suit and hang it up, and his mother would use a steam brush to remove bits of lint and smooth out small creases. So it had been until very lately, when his father would hang up the suit, but his mother would not even look at it. Of late, his mother seemed to withhold even her glances from his father. Words which had been fluent and warm were now few and chill. His mother would bring dishes for herself and Neji to the table for the evening meal, and his father would retrieve his own without a sound of protest, but his eyes were pained as he watched the woman seated across the table from him.

In the shop that his father had taken him for his new clothes, Neji had asked, "Why do I need to wear these clothes, Tou-chan?"

"Call me Otou-san, please, Neji." Seeing the hurt look in Neji's eyes, his father patted his head comfortingly. "You are going to meet my family in Tokyo. That's why you're getting new clothes." He turned the boy towards the mirror. "Look, you are very handsome. They will be very impressed with you.

Neji did not like his reflection in the mirror. He did not like the new clothes, or any of the unfamiliar things that were suddenly appearing in his life. Even the excitement of riding the bullet train was dampened by saying goodbye to his mother and the cold cheek she turned to his father at the door of their apartment.

There was a conversation going on in the room outside which Neji was seated, but he did not want to hear it. Even the muffled sounds were disagreeable to him, though he would not previously have conceived of a time when his father's voice would agitate him or fill him with fear.

He looked down the hallway and tried to find something to distract his thoughts. He gazed at the massive floral arrangement on the marble-topped table to his left. So many plum branches, so heavy, all painted gold and silver. They looked dead. Neji hated them. He bit his lower lip and felt his stomach churn.

Then he heard a small noise coming from down the hall. He frowned in that direction. The sound was coming closer. It was certainly a dog's bark. A moment later, a door opened and a small curly puppy ran into the hallway, followed by a dark-haired girl around his own age. "Akamaru! Did you find it?" The puppy dashed to the side table and batted at a ball underneath, lodging it under the rail that ran between the legs near the the foot of the table. The dog worried at the ball with his teeth but could not dislodge it. The little girl giggled. "OK, Akamaru, I'll get it for you!" She retrieved the ball and tossed it to the dog, who pounced happily.

Neji shifted in his seat. "Um -"

The girl, turned to him, surprised. Her eyes grew wide and round. She picked up the puppy in her arms and looked at Neji bashfully from around the dog's floppy ear. She smiled hesitantly. "Hello."

Neji got down from the chair. "Hello," he replied, feeling uncertain. Neji was not usually backward about making new friends, but in this strange house, wearing strange clothes, he felt disordered, as if he had been disassembled and put back together with all his pieces in the wrong place.

The girl tilted her head and looked at him curiously. She took a step closer to him. "I'm Hinata," she said in a soft voice.

"I'm Neji," he replied.

She smiled. "I thought so," she said. "You're Uncle Hizashi's son."

He nodded hesitantly.

"My daddy told me you would be coming." Neji noticed that she said "Tou-chan," not "Otou-san."

"He said Neji-kun is Uncle Hizashi's son and my cousin. He said you would be coming to visit and we should be friends." Hinata smiled shyly. Her eyes were very bright and her cheeks were pink. "Do you want to come play with me and Akamaru?"

Neji felt slightly dizzy from the introduction of new information. "OK."

Hinata put the dog down and picked up the ball, which she tossed through the open door across the hall. The dog dashed after the ball as the little girl stretched out a small hand toward Neji. He took the hand in his and Hinata smiled. She led the way into the next room, which was sumptuous with polished tables, gilded statuettes, and dark lacquered cabinets. The doors to the garden outside were open, and Neji turned toward the sunlight gratefully.

"Akamaru, let's go outside! Outside, come on," the little girl coaxed, and the puppy picked up his ball and trotted obediently to the outer door.

"Why do you call him Akamaru?" Neji asked. "He's not red."

Hinata's brow creased. "That's his name."

"Why did you name him that, I mean."

"I didn't name him." She gave Neji a puzzled look, then smiled. "Akamaru is Kiba-kun's dog. Kiba-kun named him."

"Who is Kiba?"

"Kiba-kun is my friend. His mama and my mama are friends."

"Where is he?"

Hinata led Neji out to the porch, where she sat down with her legs dangling over the edge. Neji followed suit. "Kiba-kun is on a trip with his mom, so I'm taking care of Akamaru while he's gone. Akamaru, here," she called. The dog trotted over, dropping the ball in Hinata's lap. She handed the ball to Neji with a smile.

He tossed the ball and watched the dog bound after it. Neji looked sidelong at the girl next to him. Her dark hair was straight and glossy, with a heavy fringe across her forehead. Her skin was very white.

"We're - we're cousins, you said."

She nodded. "Uncle Hizashi is your daddy, and he's my daddy's older brother. That means we're cousins. 'Neji-kun lives in Sendai with Uncle Hizashi and he's a year older, so you can call him Neji-nii-san,'" she recited. She turned to him with a smile. "Is Sendai a nice place? Is it different from here?"

"I - I guess it's nice. I don't really know what 'here' is like." He gazed around the stiff formal lines of garden with a sense of depression. "This house isn't like anywhere I've been before."

A faint line appeared between Hinata's brows. "Really?" The children were quiet for a few moments while Neji played fetch with Akamaru. "Neji-nii-chan, do you want to see something neat?"

Neji looked up from ruffling the little dog's ears. "Sure."

Hinata hopped down from the porch and waited for Neji to do the same. She then led him around the corner of the house and behind a smaller adjacent building. He rounded the corner of the small building and was startled by a riot of gold and green. A thicket of sunflowers, most soaring above the head of the small girl standing in front of them, beamed their golden cheer down at him. He stared, dazed. Hinata smiled with quiet pride.

"This is my garden. Mama said I could plant whatever I wanted, so we planted these together. Do you like them?"

Neji blinked and nodded. He gazed at the sunflowers and wondered why their cheerful, friendly faces lifted his spirit and yet made him want to cry at the same time. Hinata giggled softly and turned toward the flowers. She looked back over her shoulder at him, then stepped between two stalks and moved toward the center of the thicket, weaving through the blooms. Neji blinked again, surprised.

"Hey, wait -"

Hinata looked back again, half hidden behind broad green leaves. "You come, too, Neji-nii-chan." She turned and continued walking. Neji followed. The fuzzy stalks dragged at the wool cloth of his suit and he wondered vaguely if he was going to get in trouble for mussing his new clothes. A few paces ahead, Hinata turned and crouched down, neatly tucking her skirt behind her knees and folding it over her lap. "Neji-nii-chan, come down here." Neji crouched beside her curiously.

"Look," she said, pointing upwards. Neji followed her gaze. Sunlight shone through golden petals and made them glow, through fuzzy stalks and leaves and made them sparkle. "It's neat, right?" Hinata asked softly.

Neji nodded. "Yeah."

"I like it in here. It's like my own special place."

"I like it, too."

Hinata smiled and gently placed her head on his shoulder, looking upward.


	4. Chapter 4

**Comfort**

When the bell to his apartment rang late one evening, Neji somehow knew who would be standing at the door before he opened it. "Hinata," he said. Then he noticed the heavy bag at her feet and her expression of restrained chagrin.

"Neji-nii-san, I'm really sorry to -"

"No, no, come in." Neji took the handle of the bag from her hands and carried it in himself. Hinata bobbed her head in apology before stepping into the entryway. He closed the door and looked into her face. Her downcast eyes did not meet his. "Please come in and sit down, Hinata. I'll make some tea."

She nodded, murmuring an almost inaudible word of thanks or apology, and removed her shoes. Neji heated the water kettle as she moved to the living room and seated herself on one end of the couch. There was silence until Neji brought over the steaming mugs of tea. She took the one he held out, murmuring, "Thank you," again. Her eyes fixed on the mug as she held on with both hands. She still hadn't removed her coat.

Neji sat on the floor at the coffee table and watched her as she sipped and stared into nothingness. After a few sips, he placed his cup on the table and walked to the couch, sitting next to her. He continued to watch her, concerned. Finally, looking away carefully, he said, "It's OK to cry."

Her hands began to tremble. Tears welled up and wobbled on the tipping point. Neji gently took the mug from her hands and set it on the table. Hinata sniffed sharply and tears fell as her face crumpled. Neji took her in his arms and she clutched at the fabric of his shirt while she sobbed. Neji stroked her hair. "You worked really hard. You did your best," he said softly. "I'm proud of you."

Inadequate words of comfort, perhaps. But they took the place of the words he really wanted to say. "I'm so glad you came to me. I've missed you. I love you."


	5. Chapter 5

**Animals**

Neji had suggested the zoo, and Hinata had been excited about the idea, so there they were by mid-morning, gazing at the lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my! Hinata cooed over all the baby animals, and was delighted to take the food pellets Neji poured into her cupped palms and have fuzzy ducklings eating out of her hand.

As they walked to the next exhibit, Neji noticed her glance at a vendor selling headbands with assorted animal ears. "You want to take a look?" he asked, pointing.

She blinked and pinkened. "Mm, no, I don't need -"

Heedless of her words, he led her over to the merchandise stand. He picked up a pair of long rabbit ears and placed it on her head. "There you go."

She looked at her reflection in the mirror and giggled. "These are silly."

"I think that's kind of the point," he replied with a smirk. "Hm, maybe these." He swapped the rabbit ears for a giraffe headband with spotted ears and a pair of short stubby horns.

Hinata scanned the display and spotted a pair of grey wolf ears. She plucked these up and slipped them onto Neji's head. "Oh, those are perfect for you, Neji-nii-san," she exclaimed softly.

"Hm?" He glanced at his reflection, bemused. "I look like a wolf to you, do I?"

"Please wear those today, Neji-nii-san." He raised his brows and started to protest, but was arrested by the look of fascination on Hinata's face.

"Well - I will you if you will," he replied. She smiled happily. They paid for their new accessories and moved on.

The aviary was a favorite photo spot, with its exotic birds and colorful tropical plants. Neji pointed to a bunch of bright blooms. "Why don't you stand there, Hinata, and I'll take your photo?"

"Let's take the photo together, and I'll send it to Hanabi-chan." She took his arm and he was resistless to her enthusiasm. She took out her phone, but he said, "I'll use my phone, the camera is better." He held his phone out at arm's length. Hinata leaned in so their faces were close together and he snapped the shot. He reddened as they looked at the result together. "Hinata, why don't I take a photo with just you?"

"No, this is really good. Please send it to me," she said eagerly. He sighed and relented. While she typed her message to Hanabi, he overheard a pair of girls whispering to each other.

"Look at that cute couple!"

"I know, right? They're so well matched. Almost like brother and sister."

His ears buzzed. "Sent!" Hinata said happily, looking up from her phone.

He cleared his throat. "Ready to move on?"

They wended their way through monkeys and lemurs, koalas, pandas, and polar bears. They browsed the gift shop and then headed toward the exit. Neji reached up to take his wolf ears off.

Hinata made a small sound of protest. "Don't take them off, Neji-nii-san."

He looked at her, perplexed. "We're leaving the zoo, Hinata."

She looked down at her hands. "R-right. Sorry."

Still confused, he scrutinized the headband. "What is it you like so much about these, anyway?"

She turned faintly pink, glancing sidelong at the gray ears. "I - I don't know."

"Hm." He hooked a finger under her giraffe ears and pulled them off, replacing them with the wolf ears. She looked up at him inquiringly.

On Hinata's head, he found the ears oddly charming. The giraffe ears had just been cute and amusing, but these weren't funny. They were cute, but also kind of...sexy. The dark gray fur blended in with her dark hair and they almost looked like they belonged there. He stroked her hair a little dreamily.

"I think I can see why you like these," he said in a low voice. "They just..."

"...really suit you," she finished with him. They smiled at each other. He gently brushed the hair back from her cheek.

She lifted her chin, and he lowered his slightly. When their lips met, it was the softest of touches, but it still took her breath away.


End file.
